GaryPinC

WRT Lofton, PFR only has his catch rate that last year in Buffalo. So, I can't see his historical numbers. His targets dropped way off after that. But 51 receptions is pretty respectable. His yards per reception was also on the decline, hinting to me his speed and agility were fading. But with career ypc around 18, he was always a deep threat type receiver and I wonder if that would skew his catch rate. You got a source with his historical catch rate? Otherwise, your argument seems pretty weak.

For me, it goes beyond that. Sammy talks about skipping all the OTAs and comes off soundings stressed out. I think if I'm KC I think twice about retaining him. I like Sammy and have no ax to grind with him. But he sounds soft and not sold on staying in the NFL.

Easily? Whatever. This Caucasian guy went to school with a high population of Asians, I work in science. My wife is from Nanjing, her entire family is from that area. Other Chinese come up to her and think she's Korean because her face is a little more round than typical Chinese. Other than the bottom guy clearly not being Korean, they both have some Japanese characteristics, top guy could be Chinese also.

I think most to all players are aware of the realities of their job. My disappointment (and perhaps what bothers some of these ex players) with McBeane is they continue to talk these guys like McCoy up and then they cut them. When your culture depends on a family-type locker room, the hypocrisy of this can catch up with you. Be a little less glowing about the guys whose future is uncertain. If you read the various ex-Bills and McD articles where Andy Reid is discussed and so liked/respected by his players and formers, McD would do well to study Reid in these matters. They told Shady they wanted to go with the hot hands at RB and he accepted that. Ragland respects they were patient with his rehab. Reid tries to be realistic but also respectful, went out of his way to set McD up in Carolina when he had to let him go. I'd like to see McBeane trend a little more in this direction. Respecting the business and jerking players around with it are 2 different things.

Hey, I agree that environment plays a bigger role most of the time. Just don't dismiss genetics, it can make a big difference. Unrelated but funny example. My SIL rescues Boston Terriers for pets. Her previous one, Buster was definitely overbred. Bug-eyed, a bit cross eyed and very lovable. Happy, scared of his shadow and the cold, but loved being with people. Completely deferential. Well-aged a few years ago when she left Buster at her dad's. There was a gopher hole about 20 yards from his door. Dad woke up, opened the door to get his paper, heard loud scuffling noises behind him, turned around to look for the dog. No dog. Scratched his head. Turned back around to pick up his paper, Buster was out at the hole, offing the gopher with 5 seconds of violent neck shaking. Thing was at least half as big as him. Came trotting back in and resumed his normal chicken-poop pacifist life. ? ? ? We all had a newfound respect for that little dog! Gophers are just oversized rats!

The breed most definitely has a role to play. I won't argue that dogbite.org has an agenda. So do you. You seem to ignore that breed plays any role. It has to be carefully considered, along with maltreatment the animal has received. Your first source debates breed specific laws, a vet's quote at the bottom: Breed "absolutely" influences a dog's behavior and is one of several factors that shape an animal's temperament, explained Dr. Sagi Denenberg, a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists and the European College of Animal Welfare and Behavioral Medicine. "No one bred a Golden Retriever to look golden. They bred dogs that can swim and spend a lot of time in the water without getting cold. We essentially bred dogs for thousands of years for their behavior," said Dr. Denenberg, an instructor and researcher at Bristol Veterinary College in the United Kingdom. Back a couple of pages, I touched on a story where a pit bull was eyeing up my son. The dog we were there to adopt was a pit bull mix. We named her Ginger, she was a brindled mutt but definitely the head was pit bull. She was so friendly, shelter employees called the fostering service and she got rescued before being put down. My wife at the time and daughter were in petsmart when they met Ginger. Ginger was the star of the show, completely affable and submissive to whoever happened by, kids and adults. Nice and very intelligent. I'm not big on adopting anything other than pups given I have kids in the house, but the family begged me to adopt her and given her nature I agreed. Ginger was 2 1/2 to 3 years old. Given the entire situation, I was very careful with Ginger in terms of training (almost none) and correcting so she could settle in. She was very obedient and well-behaved anyway. Boy, did she. After about a month of walking her everyday, she started acting aggressively to anyone I met on the street. Pulling to the end of her leash, aggressive stance and barking angrily. Scaring them away, and I had to have a tight grip on the leash. After about 2 months she started getting aggressive with my loopy English setter(after getting along great when she first arrived). It advanced to intimidation and bullying. After a month of this my Setter was allowed to sit on one couch, constantly on alert for Ginger. Then Ginger started attacking her, grabbed her by the back of the neck and tried to shake her (setter's too big though). Trying to figure out what to do next when it happened again with my ex-wife trying to break up the fight and Ginger turned on her and tore up her hand a bit. Minor surgery and full recovery but the dog was put down. I felt Ginger became very possessive of our family, wanting strangers and my other dog out. She was always great with the kids but we only had her a little over 3 months. You can argue she must have been mistreated previously but who really knows and to what extent? Would other dogs have been as affected as she was? Thank God my English setter went back to normal with zero long term issues. I've been around rescues and adoptions my entire life, they're always screwed up on some level but I've never seen behavior quite like that. I would still consider adopting a pit or mix but only as a pup, and knowing full well aggression can be a problem with the breed over most others.

The other statistic I think is important but not easy to find is what percent of the overall population are pitties? Bred seem to account for 6.5%, bred or mixed are estimated around 20% of the dog population. Couldn't find a great source from the articles so no citation. Just to put the attacks in perspective.

One problem many dog owners suffer from is respecting the fact that some people dislike/fear dogs and no amount of contact with Uber-friendly dogs is going to change that. Especially when it's involuntary contact. Lifelong owners especially think everyone loves a friendly dog so no big deal he's off leash and runs up to people. Not just with pit bulls but that really makes it worse!

Haha, yah Cockers really got overbred. You sure it is Britts (medium brown and white) or is it actually Springer Spaniels (black and white)? Britts are rare outside of the bird hunting community but I have come across Springers and some have personality problems. All I would hope for you as a pit owner is that you acknowledge pits were bred for aggression and while you're rightly comfortable with your dog you still maintain some vigilence for the dog encountering a novel situation and if its body language changes. It's breeding means it's not like most dogs. For example, if I ever own a German Shepherd or Shepherd mix I would always be vigilant with it around children, no matter how exemplary its past behavior. Been around too many Shepherds and even the nicest ones can get aggressive towards kids, especially in isolated instances.

I was with everything else you said until this. There are many levels to correcting your dog, immediacy, consistency, body language, and tone of voice play a huge role depending on the sensitivity of the animal. Sharp pulls of the ear or collar, ie discomfort is quite effective especially when paired with the rest. Hitting, if at all, should be a last resort but only briefly and controlled. Indiscriminate hitting of a pit bull by humans the animal is most attached to is a recipe for disaster, and probably a contributing factor to the vicious attacks we read about.

All dogs have a fight or flight reaction in the face of fear and/or aggression. The point is that pit bulls are more predisposed to a disproportionate "fight" response than most other breeds. Some years ago we were adopting a fostered dog whose host was watching a friend's pit bull while we came in to pick ours up. "Don't worry, nicest dog, so friendly". I'm wary of pits so I kept a close eye on my high energy 5 year old, who wasn't interacting with the dog but was running around the room making a great deal of noise which the dog noticed uncomfortably. I asked my son to go play outside to which he threw up his arms screaming nooooo in a half playful half fearful inflection as he ran for the door. At which point the pit's face and body tone changed to where he was contemplating pursuing and attacking my son. The host noticed it too and separated the dog to a secure room after saying aghastly, "I've never seen him act like that before". I know there's some fantastic pits out there but ignoring this prevalent character trait or pretending it's akin to every other dog is perhaps the most harmful of all. I'm not for eliminating the breed but educating potential owners about how to handle training and always being vigilant with these dogs in situations novel to the dog. Responsible pit owners will be careful not to over correct the animals and be vigilant to potential triggers and how to avoid them. Nothing worse than a pit owner who won't acknowledge the potential is there no matter how well they think they know their dog.

The thing that bothers me about what Shanny said, "You saw a bunch of talented guys in that draft," Shanahan said. "It's very tough when you watch college systems and stuff, you don't really know until you get someone in the building. You can see ability, you can see talent, but how's the mind? How do they play in the pocket? How do they process? That's not just an IQ score. That's some stuff I don't think you can totally test. You gotta go through that with them, so there's always a risk when you spend a first-round pick on a quarterback. With the situation we were in, didn't want to be that risky, especially with the second pick in the draft." I was skeptical about Mahomes (still threw like a baseball pitcher, at a school for system quarterbacks, very mobile and unconventional) , but after pushing aside biases and actually watching the tape it wasn't hard to see how extraordinary he was at processing the game for a college QB. In defense of Shanny, I do think QB was a big priority to him as he felt he would get Kirk Cousins to join him. And, let's be honest, other than KC most of the other teams were in the same boat. No guarantees you could change Mahomes' habits and style of play.

A guy who simply wanted more of an opportunity here? He can't help where we drafted him or others' perceptions, and I didn't feel like he was holding himself up as some great player. Maybe you did? I don't know, maybe to you I am too sensitive but I just don't get why you have to look down on the guy? He's not a super star but there's little demand for one dimensional run thumpers like him so kudos that he's managed to stick around the league and on one of the top teams.

Well, you can turn that around and say with the limited free time players have during the season, do they want to be stuck in a small city or a larger metro area with a "lot more" options? There are plenty of people who prefer the big city and plenty who prefer the smaller towns(*ahemJoshAllenahem*). I'm a smaller town guy. Had the chance to meet Eric Steinbach and Joe Thomas of the Browns a number of years ago, both seemed to enjoy Cleveland and had to cut themselves off from discussing turkey and deer hunting and steelheading in the area with me. Could have spent hours but they had obligations to the event!? Hopefully the Bills sell Toronto as part of their enticement as I doubt any of these large city types realize the proximity. Plus, it's a different country which I think would be pretty unique to those wanting a scene to check out. Some kind of arrangement to get players across the border easily would also really help. But, I definitely think it's an ignorance and the guys willing to visit get their eyes open at least a little! Consistent playoff contention goes a long ways too.

No, I was totally fine with what he said. To me, he wasn't talking down the city or the organization, he made clear he understood why he was cut just that he wished they would have given him more of a chance. I couldn't find anything bad he said about Beane or McD and I respect the fact he was willing to talk with some candor. Backup or not, the man's a competitive professional, and he felt like he never had a chance here and wishes he had. I can respect that. The only sour grapes I see here are from the posters, none of these former players "blasted" the franchise and trying to belittle his words because he's only a "backup" on a talented superbowl contending team is the closest thing I see to sour grapes here.

I agree with you, my perspective for being disappointed was his loss of focus early in the Baltimore game and latter half of the playoff game. I think at times he focuses on the wrong things (not waiting for his late read to develop, instead putting the ball into tight coverage), this I can accept as part of the growth process. I do have a lot of faith he is our franchise quarterback, he should have a good leap forward next year but maybe it's his 4th year where he never loses his focus and excels consistently.

I'm happy with McCoy's time here, I felt he was professional and overall represented the team well and wish him luck for his ring and that he gets to play. Plus, he was talented and fun to watch. A blessing as we rebuilt. I think most people realize that running backs lose that powerful first burst step that accelerates them through trouble. Not necessarily cutting and faking. Problem is, running backs like Shady are the last to realize it. I felt the beginning of the end showed in 2018 and wish we would have dealt him then. He doesn't overall seem like a bad guy, probably a bit of a douche though. In his own way, I think he was simply saying he wishes we would have traded him in 2018 instead of talking him up only to be cut before next season. I can't honestly blame him for that, and in a league of ball-washing the fans ("best fans ever here in (insert city)!"), coach-speak, player-speak, and front office-speak, I always welcome honest talk and insights of behind-the-scenes.

For me as a scientist (cardiology research), the real problem is when scientists (and doctors) become activists. Kind of like when our "free press" jumps bandwagon on allowing their personal views to cloud their objectivity in reporting. There should be no doubt CTE is real. The real question should be how much of a problem is this? I can't emphasize enough the vast majority of the data was hugely biased with professional football players who clearly had neurological-based problems before being enrolled in the study. It was not an open sampling of every NFL player. It was not an open sampling of athletes. It is perfectly welcome to be overcautious as the research develops, my only hope is that the research will address the question of actual risk in ALL football athletes (and all athletes) and not just elucidate the disorder with scare tactics thrown in. I have coached both my kids through youth sports and anecdotally, there was clearly an individual susceptibility to concussion in my opinion. Around 1 million kids a year play high school football. I played high school football. Am I going to develop CTE, especially given I don't think I've ever sustained a concussion and definitely never experienced anything like post-concussion syndrome?

I'm a bit disappointed, but it's with his consistency. He clearly made great strides in his pre-snap reads, though still missing hot reads sometimes. He struggled with understanding Daboll's play designs, and having the patience to let them develop. But at times he was right on getting the ball in anticipation of the open breaking receiver. My take is that he should take his biggest steps forward this year, as expected, but he will maddeningly still struggle with his consistency. His lack of past development, plus the fact that his whole life was small town football where hero ball was all he did will continue to slow his consistency. He seems to have the drive to overcome all this but overcoming your ingrained past is not a given for any player so that's definitely my worry. His lack of 300 yard passing games I think is a combo of conservative game plans, lack of receiving talent and Allen's consistency.

Unbelievable everyone here who wants to condemn Daboll for the woes on offense. Sure. Let's forget about the role the head coach plays. Let's forget about the role a young, developing quarterback plays. Does anyone have proof the conservative shift with a lead was from McDermott or Daboll? McDermott is a huge proponent of avoiding turnovers on offense. Hmmm, how to do that with a lead and young QB? Do people realize Josh Allen wasn't consistent enough to always take advantage of Daboll's complex play designs? I witnessed this myself against Cleveland. Does Daboll request Gore be in there or was that McDermott, who is on record as feeling a two RB system is necessary? I agree that sometimes Daboll tried some stuff that was ill conceived (assuming Allen didn't audible), but it was infrequent and I like that he's always trying different approaches. I also saw a lot of diverse, excellently called series to get us down the field and score. Bottom line for me is Daboll isn't perfect but is doing a solid job overall and seems to mesh greatly with Allen who is going into his most important developmental year. Yeah, let's fire him or let him walk??

Do you consider a pure lateral move to be a DB coach a dream job?? I think you're making more out of a potential block than there is. Daboll interviewed for HC and most coaches would understand if the Bills deny this purely lateral interview. If Bills denied a position coach the chance to be a coordinator then you might have a good point. Quite frankly, I would think less of the FO if they allowed an excellent position coach the opportunity to interview for a pure lateral move.

I'm not so sure. A couple defined areas of safties: https://operations.nfl.com/the-rules/nfl-video-rulebook/safety/ Exceptions: It is not a safety: If a forward pass from behind the line of scrimmage is incomplete in the end zone. It does not specify legal or illegal and I'm not sure if it includes both. But the rule defines a safety as either the offense commits a foul in its endzone or the ball goes dead in the endzone or the ball goes out behind the goal line. That's it. Hence this exception for the forward pass. There's also these rules on an interception: If a player of the team which intercepts, catches, or recovers the ball commits a live-ball foul in the end zone, it is a safety. If a player who intercepts, catches, or recovers the ball throws a completed illegal forward pass from the end zone, the ball remains alive. If his opponent intercepts the illegal pass thrown from the end zone, the ball remains alive. If he scores, it is a touchdown. So on a change of possession rule 2 allows an illegal completed pass out of the endzone, but it seems to me an incomplete illegal would be a dead ball in this situation since it allows the illegal completed pass. Now how does that apply to kicks and the receiving team? WRT Periera saying the player have himself up, as a soccer ref I judge intent all the time and I agree with him but this is football and the NFL likes to exhaustively define things and not judge intent. And by rule the player did not give himself up properly.

Anybody have the rule # on that? I saw it defined that way for offensive possession but not on kickoffs.

There is one other angle worth discussing. The toss to the ref being an illegal forward pass. Receiver used a forward motion and the ball did go forward towards the oponnents goal line, so I think it fits that description. It hit the ground (wasn't intercepted) so would be a dead ball and 5 yard penalty from the spot of the foul. Being in the end zone, there's no guidance in the rule book on enforcement from the endzone on kicks so that may be why the extra refs came on to discuss and they decided thusly. Though I think they could have ruled safety despite no line of scrimmage. It'll be interesting if the NFL redefines a player giving up for the touchback or stipulates the penalty for illegal forward pass in the endzone on kicks. I'm thinking the latter. Maybe both!

Please. I do. Though most people are good and friendly, there's always the handful of idiots, just like anyplace you live, including Buffalo